The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to rake in those box office winnings, and it sounds like the rest of Hollywood continues to be green with envy – including director Francis Ford Coppola.
Less than a month after The Irishman director Martin Scorsese said the Marvel movies are “not cinema,” fellow director Francis Ford Coppola has labelled them “despicable.”
Speaking to journalists at the Lumière Film Festival, Coppola said “when Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he’s right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration.”
“I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again,” he said. “Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema. He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.”
Ouch.
Marvel director James Gunn has since responded to Francis Ford Coppola’s shady comments, writing on Instagram, “Many of our grandfathers thought all gangster movies were the same, often calling them “despicable.” Some of our great grandfathers thought the same of westerns, and believed the films of John Ford, Sam Peckinpah, and Sergio Leone were all exactly the same.”
“I remember a great uncle to whom I was raving about Star Wars. He responded by saying, “I saw that when it was called 2001, and, boy, was it boring!” Superheroes are simply today’s gangsters/cowboys/outer space adventurers.”
“Some superhero films are awful, some are beautiful. Like westerns and gangster movies (and before that, just MOVIES), not everyone will be able to appreciate them, even some geniuses. And that’s okay.”
Kudos to Gunn for taking the higher ground. Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola are entitled to their opinion on the MCU, but the numbers don’t lie. With eight out of the top ten highest-grossing superhero films being produced by Marvel Studios, there is clearly a hunger for the films, whether they’re considered ‘cinema’ or not.